Rav Kook Torah

﻿Shavuot: Like an Apple Tree

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This week:
Bechukotai

The Midrash compares the Jewish people at Mount Sinai
to an apple tree. In what way?

“Like an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my
beloved among the sons” (Song 2:3). Why is Israel compared
to an apple tree? An apple tree sends forth its fruit before
its leaves. So too, Israel promised Na’aseh (‘We will do’)
before Nishma (‘we will understand').” (Shabbat 88a)

The Song of Songs — the poetic love-story of a shepherdess and her
beloved — is traditionally understood as a parable for the relationship between
the Jewish people (the shepherdess) and God. This
Midrash, however, interprets the story in a different fashion, as a
parable for the special connection
of the Torah and the people of Israel. According to this
interpretation, the shepherdess is the Torah, which yearns
for the holiness found in the souls of Jewish people.

Still, the comparison to an apple tree is not clear. Why it is important that the people
first said at Sinai, Na’aseh, “We will do”?
How does this relate to the fact that certain
species of apple trees produce fruit-buds before the
leaves?

Two Revelations — Oral and Written

A careful reading of the Torah’s description of MatanTorah reveals that Moses presented the Torah to the people
not once but twice:

“Moses came and told the people all of God’s words and
all the statutes. All the people answered in one voice,
saying: ‘All the words that God spoke — we will do.'” (Ex.
24:3)

“Moses wrote all of God’s words ... He took the book of the
covenant and read it to the people. And they said, ‘All
that God spoke, we will do and we will understand.'” (Ex.
24:4-7)

In other words, Moses transmitted the Torah both orally and in writing.
Why was this necessary? And why
did the people respond “we will do” the first time, while at
the second revelation they added, “and we will understand"?

The Challenge of Sinai

MatanTorah presented a major challenge. On the one hand,
the Torah was to be presented in a way that the entire people
would gain a personal connection to its Divine message. At the same time,
it was critical to avoid
the dangers of distorted interpretations due
to the superficial study of unlearned masses. To address this concern, two
Torahs were transmitted at Sinai: the Oral Torah and the
Written Torah.

The primary goal of Torah is that we should know how God
expects us to act in the world. This is the purpose of the
extensive literature of the Oral Law, the Mishnah and
Talmud, which analyzes in detail our moral and spiritual obligations in life’s varied
(and often complex) situations.

Additionally, there is a second aspect of Torah: knowing the
Torah for its own sake. This is the function of the Written
Torah. The Sages wrote that even one who does not
understand the words he reads fulfills the
mitzvah of Torah study (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 2:4). This, however,
is only true for the Written Torah. Studying
the Oral Torah has no value if it is not
understood correctly. On the contrary, misunderstanding the
Oral Law can lead to erroneous actions.

To acquire a clear grasp of the Torah’s teachings on a
practical level requires a breadth and depth of Torah
scholarship. An entire people cannot be expected to attain
such a level of Torah knowledge. For this reason, the
practical side of Torah was transmitted orally. This way,
only those willing to toil in its study and learn from great
scholars can acquire its knowledge. If this part of
Torah were written down and revealed to all, even the
unlearned would feel qualified to decide practical issues.
An oral transmission ensures that those rending decisions
will be dedicated scholars who study Torah thoroughly and
diligently.

One might argue that perhaps the entire Torah should
be transmitted orally. But were this the case, Torah
knowledge would be limited to a select few. The Written Law
enables all to approach the Torah on whatever level
they are capable of understanding.

In summary: it was important that the Jewish people
accept both forms of Torah at Sinai, both written and oral. This
ensured that the entire people would be connected to
Torah while relying on qualified scholars to render legal decisions.

Na’aseh and then Nishma

It is natural for people to seek to understand as much as
possible and act according to their understanding. We would
expect that the Jewish people would demand to receive the
entire Torah in a written form, so that they would have access to
all aspects of Torah.

The spiritual greatness of the Jewish people at Mount Sinai was
their recognition of the advantage of not writing down the
Oral Law, so that their actions would be determined by true
scholars and thus best fulfill God’s Will. This is the
significance of their promise, 'Na’aseh': we will
act according to the teachings and instructions of
the sages. Since this acceptance was equally relevant to
all, regardless of intellectual capabilities and education,
the verse emphasizes that “All the people answered in one
voice.”

Having accepted upon themselves to properly keep the Torah
according to the dictates of the sages, Moses then presented
the people with the Written Torah. We would have expected that
the people would have demonstrated their love for the
Written Law — since this was a Torah they could access
directly — by immediately stating, 'Nishma!' — “we will
understand.” But once again, the Jewish people demonstrated their
desire to first fulfill the practical side of
Torah. They announced: “We will do,” and only
afterwards, “we will understand.”

The Fruit and the Leaves

Now we may understand better the comparison to an apple tree.
Fruit requires sunlight to grow and ripen.
Too much exposure to the sun, however, may cause the fruit to dry up and
shrivel. This is where the leaves come in — to
protect the fruit so they will receive the
right amount of sunlight.

The ultimate goal is, of course, the fruit. With Torah, the
goal is the proper action, which is achieved
through the Oral Torah. The Written Law, on the other hand,
is like the leaves. Just as the leaves protect the fruit, so
too, the more accessible Written Torah prepares each soul to
receive the light of the Oral Torah. In order
that the people will accept the Torah and understand the
importance of keeping its mitzvot, the
entire people needed to be exposed to the Written Torah. Through
this direct connection to Torah, they were ready to accept the
instruction of the Oral Torah as taught by the great Torah
scholars of each generation.

The apple tree produces fruit-buds before the leaves, since at
first the fruit requires direct sunlight. So too,
the people first accepted the Oral Law, the
detailed Torah given to the sages to interpret,
like the sunlight that ripens the fruit.

However, without a direct connection to
Torah, the people would eventually come to reject it.
Therefore Moses subsequently presented the
Written Law, to protect the Oral Law for future generations.
The order at Sinai — first the Oral Law and then the Written Law, first 'Na’aseh'
and then 'Nishma' — thus parallels the
development of the apple tree — first the fruit-buds, and then the leaves.